[Usability] ISO 9241

["Erik Pukinskis" <erikthelephant hotmail com>]

I'm some research on usability metrics for some testing I'll be doing,
and I came across the ISO 9241 standard, which I had never heard of
before.  We've all read Apple's HIG and About Face and whatnot, but no
one ever mentions this thing.  It costs about $1000 it seems, so I
haven't actually read it.

An example from a paper I found:

"High level principles for user interface design are contained in ISO
9241-10 (ISO 1993b) "Dialogue principles" (which is based on an earlier
DIN standard).  These principles are: suitability for the task,
suitability for learning, suitability for individualisation, conformity
with user expectations, self descriptiveness, controllability, and error
tolerance. 

"ISO 9241-10 gives applications and examples of each principle.  For
example, one application of controllability is 'If interactions are
reversible and the task permits, it should be possible to undo the last
dialogue step'.  An example of this is 'The dialogue system offers the
possibility to access deleted objects'." -
http://www.usability.serco.com/papers/music94.pdf

Have any of you guys read this thing?  Is it worthwhile or useful for
creating Gnome's HIG?  Just another HIG with another set of opinions?
Beurocratic fluff?

-Erik Pukinskis